Rangers close in on deal

HOPES were ris­ing last night that a deal could be struck be­tween Rangers play­ers and ad­min­is­tra­tors to avoid sig­nif­i­cant job losses at Ibrox.

Talks went on through­out the day at Mur­ray Park af­ter both par­ties re­con­vened to dis­cuss pro­pos­als from the play­ers over help­ing the club make sav­ings with­out job losses.

But some play­ers are ex­pected to de­part what­ever the final out­come as Swedish mid­fielder Mer­van Ce­lik is be­lieved to have agreed to leave.

Scot­land Un­der-21 in­ter­na­tional Gregg Wylde has also of­fered to quit the club.

Tired

Wylde ar­rived at Rangers’ train­ing ground in mid-af­ter­noon af­ter it emerged that he had of­fered to walk.

The 20-year-old, who has made 47 ap­pear­ances for the club, ex­plained: “I wanted to help out the club by keep­ing peo­ple in a job.

“I was so tired I couldn’t re­ally sleep at night. It was get­ting to me so I thought I would leave.”

Ce­lik (right) only ar­rived at the club in Jan­uary un­der free­dom of con­tract from Swedish side GAIS, although they were due a trans­fer fee.

Top earn­ers at the club are be­lieved to be con­sid­er­ing wage cuts of 75 per cent for a pe­riod of time, with cuts of 25-50 per cent for those lower down the wage struc­ture.

Goal­keeper Al­lan Mc­gre­gor is among the high­est-paid play­ers, hav­ing signed a six-year deal last sum­mer, and he de­nied, through his solic­i­tor, that he had re­fused to take a cut.

In a state­ment, Mar­garet Grib­bon of Bridge Lit­i­ga­tion said: “Con­trary to some me­dia re­ports Al­lan has not re­fused to ac­cept a salary re­duc­tion.

“These al­le­ga­tions are false and Al­lan has in­structed me to make clear if these al­le­ga­tions are re­ported as fact he will have no op­tion but to re­sort to le­gal ac­tion. “Al­lan, along with many of his fel­low play­ers, is com­mit­ted to mak­ing per­sonal salary sac­ri­fices to en­sure the club survives.

“Al­lan has and will con­tinue to ex­tend his full co-op­er­a­tion with the ad­min­is­tra­tors.”

On-loan Arse­nal player Kyle Bart­ley said: “All the play­ers who will be tak­ing wage cuts or leav­ing will be sav­ing peo­ple’s jobs.”